-
10
、
Refute
第十位：
Refute
“
Refute
”
means to
“
disprove with
evidence
”
and
yet
it
’
s commonly used, even by
professional writers, to mean
“
< br>rebut
”
which
carries a similar meaning but
isn
’
t quite so strong, as it
can also mean
“
argue
against.
”
The
example here
(
“
Sim
on Cowell
refutes ?scandalous? claims he helped
billionaire hide assets from wife he
was divorcing”) is from a recent Daily Mail
article.
For those outside the UK, the
Daily Mail is a newspaper which regularly rages
against
falling educational standards.
A special mention to Sarah Palin who invented a
new
word “refudiate”; the usage
suggests she meant repudiate.
“
Refute
”意为“通过证据来反对”，然而它常被普
通人甚至职业作家当作“
rebut
（反驳）”一词使用。尽管
两者意思相近，都会有
“反驳”之意，但“
< br>rebut
”的语气
不如
“
refute
”强。有个例子来自近期的
每日邮报文章：西蒙?科威尔
“
re
fute
驳斥”
“丑闻”，声称他帮
百万富翁私藏财产，躲过前妻视线。对于那些没有生活在英国的
人来说，每日邮报只是个
不定时抱怨一下教育水平下降的报纸。值得一提的是，莎拉?
佩林创建了新词汇“
refudiate
（否认）”
,
用法等同于
“
repudiate
”，意为“否认”。
9
、
Instant
第九位：
Instant Nowadays,
it
’
s almost universally
assumed that
“
instant
”
actually means
“
quickly
”
or
“
without
intervention.
”
Obviously, it
doesn
’
t. It
actually refers to a precise moment in time.
Google Instant is a good
example
of
this
word
being
abused.
如今，几乎所有人都认为“
instant
”就是“迅速”
或“连续”
的意思，但显然不是这样。它事实上是指在精准的时间内。谷歌即时搜索
就是一个滥用该
词的典型例子。
8
、
Enormity
第八位：
Enormity
“
Enormity
”
means
“
extreme
evil
”
, but
it
’
s often
used
to mean
“
enormousness
”
. US President, George HW Bush
missed this one
when he said after
being elected that he
“
Could
n
’
t believe the enormity of
the
situation.
”
A
perfect example of irony (which, in the context I
have just used it, is
correct).
“
Enormity
”意为“穷凶极恶”，但它却常用
来指“巨大”之意。美国前总
统，乔治?沃克?布什，曾经误用过该词，在就职典礼上，
他发言道“没想到任务如此
之大。”这是个具有讽刺意味的例子。
7
、
Less
第七位：
Less Less is used when
comparing quantities that
can
’
t be
counted;
for example,
“
I
’
d
like less milk.
”
If
you
’
re comparing quantities
(like
bagels, for example) then
“
fewer
”
should be used. But you
don
’
t win many
competitions with a tie break if
you point out that “25 words or less”
should actually
be “25 words or fewer.”
The antonyms “more than” and “greater than” get
similarly
misused. Programmers will
know the comparison operators are referred to as
“greater than and less than”; it should
reall
y be
“
greater than and fewer
than
”
.
“
Less
”
用于形容不可数名词，如“我想喝一点牛奶。”如果形容可数名词，如百吉
饼之类，这时，那就应该用
“
fewer
”。
但如果你比赛平
局时你指出“
25
字或
less
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